after wild Australian GP
For American Scott Speed, the Australian Grand Prix was a variation of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
Speed grabbed eighth place in the final seconds of the race. It was a glorious moment as he scored his first point in only his third Grand Prix start. Unfortunately for Speed, officials later penalized him for passing David Coulthard in a yellow-flag zone and demoted him to ninth place.
While it was a disappointing change of events for Speed, he still drove an outstanding race and avoided any trouble to earn his best finish yet in his rookie F1 season.
After the previous Grand Prix, in Malaysia, Speed, teammate Tonio Liuzzi and other members of the Toro Rosso team headed straight for Australia.
“We were planning on going to Cairns,” Speed said, “but there was a typhoon there in the last weeks, so we went to Surfers Paradise.”
Cairns is a town on the northeast coast of Australia that’s a gateway to The Great Barrier Reef. Surfers Paradise is a beach resort town south of Cairns.
“Training was the main objective,” Speed said. “I did a lot of cycling and a few days in the weight room. We also relaxed, did some surfing and tennis. It was the first time I had ever tried surfing, and it was a lot of fun. It was weird because I was better on the first day of surfing than the second one.”
Speed had never seen Melbourne’s Albert Park track that plays host to the Australian Grand Prix, but he had driven many laps on it with computer games before he got there.
He set the 17th quickest time March 31, which was the first day of practice.
“The out lap felt intimidating as it was very slippery out there,” he said. “Then, after I saw Neel (Jani) go off, I thought ‘Oh, man, this looks like a recipe for disaster.’
“So at first it was difficult to push hard enough to keep the temperature in the tires. So that was intense.”
Qualifying on April 1 did not go as well as Speed had hoped. He set a lap time quick enough to make it through the first round of eliminations but crossed the start/finish line just after the session had ended. He lined up 19th for the race.
“I had a good start to the session even if as expected it was tough to warm up the tires,” he said. “The second run was better still until I lost the car in Turn 14. We’re not sure exactly what caused that; maybe it was down to the tire pressures we were running. Up to that point, I was on a lap that would have easily been good enough for 13th or 14th place. My final lap was also good enough for 14th, but I did it crossing the red light.”
The Australian Grand Prix on April 2 was an incident-packed race, but Speed managed to avoid the accidents, spins and debris that caused other drivers to retire. In the closing stages of the race, he was in ninth place and fending off challenges from Coulthard in the Red Bull Ferrari. Speed was aiming for his first top-10 F1 finish.
“At the time we were ninth,” he said, “and I was just thinking: ‘Get a top 10, stay in front of David, just be smooth.”
As the pair entered the finally corner, they encountered a massive cloud of smoke from the blown engine of Jenson Button’s Honda. Button’s retirement just yards from the finish line elevated Speed to eighth and Coulthard to ninth.
“I came out of the corner with David right behind me,” Speed said, “and I saw a big cloud of smoke. I kept going flat out. There was oil on the track, and I got into a big slide but I was able to finish the race ahead of David. And the team told me I was eighth!”
The Scuderia Toro Rosso crew and Speed were ecstatic. He had scored the first point of his F1 career and the first point for the team.
“It is a dream come true!” Speed said after climbing out of his car. “The most emotional experience of my life was when I came into the impound area and my whole team was on the fence cheering like I won the race. The whole team went crazy.
“It was like a victory. I worked very hard to get into the position.”
But then came the agony of defeat. Race officials determined that Speed had passed Coulthard when the yellow flags were waving for an accident by Liuzzi. They levied a 25-second penalty to Speed’s overall race time, and that dropped him to ninth behind Coulthard. Stewards also fined Speed $5,000 for using abusive language toward another competitor during the post-race hearing.
“It was a surreal day, to say the least,” Speed said. “This post-race incident will only increase our drive and focus to be serious point contenders during the remainder of the season.”
While it was disappointing for Speed to lose the point, the good news is that he finished another Grand Prix and gained more valuable experience.
Speed’s next race will be the San Marino Grand Prix on April 23. On July 2, he will compete in the United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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2006 USGP tickets: Tickets are on sale for the 2006 United States Grand Prix, scheduled for Sunday, July 2.
Fans can order tickets online at indianapolismotorspeedway.com, by calling the IMS ticket office at (317) 492-6700 or (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area, or at the ticket office at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Parking and camping information also can be obtained through the ticket office.
Hours for phone orders and the ticket office are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (EST) Monday-Friday, while online orders can be made at any time.
